I have just put the finishes touches on my latest attempt at a Local Weather Widget for Wordpress, this time branded in Leitrim colours.

I first had a stab at this kind of thing a couple of years ago but removed it when it broke the blog completely…! This new version seems a bit more stable, but still suffers from missing data from the Yahoo! Weather feed, especially overnight. Also, and here’s the problem, it’s still hard coded into a text widget, which isn’t exactly ideal. You should be able to see the real thing at the bottom of the sidebar on the right… (UPDATE : I’ve just turned the weather widget off – it should be back once I’ve worked out how to make it not quite so easy to download a free set of my weather icons..!)

So if there are any bored PHP / Wordpress experts out there who’d be interested in a collaboration, please do get in touch. It’d be nice to make this into a proper Irish Local Weather widget downloadable from wordpress.org/extend, with options in the admin page to select your county branding, your town or city (or long-lat?), and choose from current, 1 day or 2 day forecasts or combinations.

As before, the XML parsing and CSS classes are based on those by Marco Voegeli. The data is currently coming from Yahoo!Weather, but I’m in the process of investigating the free weather API from World Weather Online – they offer a longer-range forecast, and they’re also using my weather icons!

Here’s a sneak peek at a brand new set of ‘realistic’ weather icons’ ideal for websites or apps.

A complete set of 40 different weather types (including night-time versions) each framed inside a recessed window that also reflects the type of weather ‘outside’ by way of various lighting effects ‘inside’. The weather views themselves are opaque, but the surrounding border has varying levels of PNG transparency – basically it means that these icons will work beautifully no matter what colour background they are placed on.

I’ve called this set ‘Window on the Weather’ – and like the traditional weather symbols sets, it’s royalty free for personal and commercial use.

By the way, if you’re looking for a free Weather API so you can build your own weather application, you could try World Weather Online, who supply worldwide weather and XML/JSON/CSV weather data feed via. their Weather API. They are also, incidentally, currently using my ‘TV-style’ weather symbols on their site right now!

To learn more about the ‘Window on the Weather’ Icon Set – click the image below…

Just a quick heads up to say the new Mike Afford Media promo reel is finally online. You can choose to watch it here on mikeafford.com which should be viewable (thanks to the miracle that is HTML5 with Flash fallback) on most browers and certain shiny smartphones. Or if you prefer you can always head over to the Mike Afford Media YouTube Channel and watch it there, or check the slightly higher quality version over on Vimeo
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BBC2 Wednesday May 25th 2011 at 4:30pm

Don’t forget to check out tomorrow’s episode of Little Howard’s Big Question on BBC Two at 4.30. Digital compositing by Mike Afford Media and Made In Colour.

Tomorrow’s episode is called “How Can I Be in Two Places at Once?” and among other things sees Little Howard try to attend an exciting Custard Expo and a boring wedding at the same time. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, he also runs into a robot version of himself who opens up a portal to a parallel universe. Come on – robots, parallel universes and custard… what is there not to like..?!!
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A quick reminder that the new series of Little Howard’s Big Question is starting tomorrow (Wednesday 18th May) at 4.30pm on BBC One. Digital compositing by Mike Afford Media and Made In Colour.

Tomorrow’s episode is called “Why Can’t I Be Bigger” and among other things sees Little Howard grow to monstrous proportions and go on the rampage. And if that wasn’t reason enough to tune in, he also shrinks down to the size of a pea. Actually, not a pea. A little bit bigger than that, but still very small indeed.

Here’s a few sneaky peek preview shots from the first show.
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Titles and content sequences for The All New Adventures of Flannel Alan – a brand new reboot of the original ‘Flannel Alan’ children’s TV show.

The characters from the original series have been completely redesigned and updated, and most of the show is now 3D animation instead of live action and puppetry.

The graphics were made using Cinema 4D for the 3D bits, and composited in After Effects.
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Our famous ‘traditional’ TV-style Weather Symbols are now available on a range of gifts and clothing over at The Weather Symbol Store

Why not pop along for a huge selection of Weather Symbol T-Shirts, Mugs, Clocks and literally hundreds of Weather Symbol branded products.

The downloadable web-sized versions proved so popular I figured it might be time to branch out – so I’ve plastered some symbols on pretty much every available product over at Cafepress. There’s some pretty nifty items including iPad and iPhone cases. Plenty of perfect gift ideas for anyone who knows anyone interested in The Weather. I used to know a few meself as it happens.

Or you could simply wear your very own weather forecast for the day! Here in Ireland, I reckon anything with rain on would be a pretty safe bet.

I might add some more products at some point. Or maybe see if these ones fly off the shelves first…

The inexorable pull of weather graphics once again – this time for Little Howard’s Big Question. This weeks episode was called “Can I Wrestle Control of the Weather from Siân Lloyd’s Evil Grip?” as Little Howard becomes convinced that the famous weather presenter is actually an evil wizard determined to ruin the Swingballdon finals.

So, among other things, you’ll be able to see some hastily cobbled-together weather graphics alongside the usual top-notch compositing! Pay special attention to the Swingball sequence right at the beginning of the show to see if you can work out how a cartoon boy manages to play a real Swingball…
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A reminder that the eagerly awaited second series of Little Howard’s Big Question starts this Wednesday on BBC2 at 4.00pm.

Digital compositing for this series is by Mike Afford Media and Made In Colour.

Little Howard’s Big Question is a children’s series about an animated six-year-old boy, and stars Howard Read as his (human!) housemate as they attempt to answer questions about the world around them. This first episode is called ‘Why Can’t I Get Hold of Sawblaind the Municipal?’ as Little Howard ponders why he can’t get hold of the rarest trading card in Purley, leading eventually to a daring heist of the Crown Jewels.

If you fancy a giggle, be sure to set the Sky+ and remember the Series Link! It’s on BBC2 NI – Wednesdays at 4.00pm. The first episode has a great ‘Italian Job’ style heist and a dead catchy song that I haven’t stopped humming since I did the composite a few weeks ago. Hilarious!

More details to follow, but for now here is a sneak peak at a couple of shots from the first episode…

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Here’s the full version of the new title music for the Setanta Sports show iTalkSport. I must have been too busy in the previous post writing about the new virtual studio set that I forgot to mention that I also did the theme tune.

Listen here:

iTalkSport title music

Recently completed – a brand new virtual studio set for Setanta’s iTalkSport show that launched on Friday.

iTalkSport is a late-night sport discussion programme and the set prominently features views of the Dublin skyline.

This virtual set project consisted of two main challenges – designing and building the actual structure of the set, and putting ‘live’ shots behind the presenters and guests.

It was a close call whether we would be using four permanently mounted roof-top cameras to feed the backgrounds. In the end we went for a less expensive (but more complicated!) solution. The whole thing is running on the RT Software tOG VR system, isn’t dependent on the weather, and has the uncanny feature of rendering street-lamps invisible.

I’ll give a full behind-the-scenes glimpse later on, but for now, here are some grabs from Friday’s show.

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You can now download a new set of our popular Weather Symbols as animated GIFs.

40 original weather icons at 4 different sizes, ideal for websites and iPhone / iPad apps.

There are now 3 different formats available – PNG with solid backgrounds, PNG with transparent backgrounds, and this new set of animated GIFs. …read more

Election Graphics, Virtual Reality and Swingometers

So, they’re off! The 2010 Election Campaign starts now, and while most people will be wondering who’ll be in No.10 next month, I’m wondering who’ll come out on top in the Election Graphics stakes.

The last BBC Election programme I worked on was back in 2006, and there’s a part of me that misses the excitement of a live election broadcast. Often weeks, months (sometimes years) of work all come together for one almighty extravaganza. A nail-biting marathon of TV graphics where the entire programme is only a power-cut away from disaster.

I notice the BBC has launched its Election 2010 website – and among other things they already have a nice interactive swingometer here with a neat explanation from Jeremy Vine for the uninitiated.

There’s a possible hint of the Election night graphics by way of a branded banner at the top of all of the Election 2010 web pages : party-coloured discs or buttons radiating from a central point.

It’s hard to say whether this is ‘Campaign’ branding, or ‘Election’ branding – I would guess by now that the various departments are all working to the same design guidelines by now.

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Just a quick reminder that the Broadcast Video Expo opens on the 16th February at Earls Court in London.
It’’s one of the biggest UK technology events for broadcasters, audio and video manufacturers and suppliers, and anyone interested in production, post & delivery.

And of course, don’t forget to visit Booth B24 and have a chat with our good friends at RT Software.

RT Software develops and supplies PC-based real time 3D graphics solutions for broadcasters. These solutions are aimed at sports, news, elections, interactive TV, virtual sets and for playout graphics.

Visit the RT Software site now for Real-time 3D graphics broadcast solutions.

Red Giant Software are having a secret sale right now – ALL products 40% off. Just for the rest of today (about 11 hours left as I write this – sale ends at 11:59 PM PST).

As a big fan of Magic Bullet Looks, this was a great opportunity to upgrade to the full Magic Bullet suite.

I’ve just had a quick try out of a few of the plugins in After Effects – Instant HD 1.1 and Frames 1.0 look pretty nifty. Steady looked promising if a bit slow, but to be fair, the test footage I was trying was VERY shaky. I may try some more realistic tests later in the week.

Anyway, a big thank you to Mary and Dave at Red Giant for replying so promptly to my cheeky emails.

And also a very big thank you to Angus for phoning me earlier to let me know the sale was on in the first place.